Retired Teachers bestow grants

During a tea held at the Café de Artistes, Co-President Sandy Grossman reported that the Fallbrook Branch of the California Retired Teachers Association is happy to grant $200 to seven recipients this year. The group hopes to increase that amount in the future. Gigi Hollady, also of CRTA, mentioned that it was difficult to choose the grant recipients because all of the projects had merit. “We looked for projects that were not ‘consumable’ and would carry over for a while,” she explained.

Most teachers are now forced to pay for many of their own supplies. One teacher shared that even simple items such as batteries can be quite expensive if you have to buy them for the entire class. Another teacher shared that, during a classroom open-house, a friend of hers stuck post-it notes that read, “Purchased by Teacher” on all the items that she had purchased with her own money. Because the Fallbrook Chapter of CRTA is concerned that teachers are forced to purchase many of their own supplies the members work hard to raise funds to support the grant program.

Jan Phipps, a first grade teacher at Fallbrook Street Elementary School, was concerned about the lack of funds directed towards gifted children, so she is using her grant to purchase literacy packets with non-fiction books, activity cards and manipulatives for the gifted children in her classroom.

Aimee Plette and Bill Billingsley team teach fourth grade at San Onofre School on Camp Pendleton and will use their grants to purchase science supplements including electricity modules and math problem solving materials. They both ascribe to the motto, “Learn by Doing,” and hope to inspire their students with hands-on teaching modules.

Monica Powell teaches 6th and 8th grade science at Sullivan Middle School and will use her grant to purchase simple chemicals to be used in demonstration. Her students have expressed a desire to hear things that “go boom,” and she feels that they will pay attention to the process if she creates small chemical reactions.

Bryan Gunner will use his grant to create a science museum for his 7th and 8th grade students at San Onofre School on Camp Pendleton. The students will be able to develop projects which demonstrate various science concepts.

Connie Follstad, who teaches 3rd grade at Live Oak Elementary School, is planning a “Secret Garden” at the school. Children with learning disablities will study plants as part of their curriculum and all students will be able to enjoy the garden as a quiet place to read or reflect.

Lori DeMille, who teaches second grade at Mary Fay Pendleton School, is excited about ten different plays and musicals that she will purchase. “The plays can be adapted to other grades,” she explained. After her students perform the plays, the scripts will be placed in the library for others to use.

The grant recipients expressed their gratitude to the CRTA members for caring enough to raise the funds for classroom supplies.